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III National Championship women’s volleyball team.

Video Games Find Role in Athletes’ Rehabilitation

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Dr. Kirk Brumels of the Hope College athletic training staff had an intuitive sense
and a fair bit of anecdotal evidence that popular activity-based video games like
"Dance Dance Revolution" and "Wii Fit" Balance Board programs could play a positive
role in helping athletes with balance rehabilitation, but he hadn't located any hard
data to support the notion.

So, this fall he and a team of student researchers tackled the topic themselves.
They conducted a study, published in the winter 2008 edition of "Clinical Kinesiology,"
that found that such games offered the best of both worlds: they were more effective
than traditional rehabilitation tools and the athletes enjoyed them more.

Ironically - or, rather, perhaps because the athletes were enjoying using the activities--participants
in the study also believed that the games were less difficult than the traditional
tools even as they were more effective.

"They perceived it as easier, yet the data suggested that it was as effective as,
if not more effective than, the other exercises," Brumels said.

The athletic training program at Hope has been using "Dance Dance Revolution" and
"Wii Fit" with athletes who have had ankle sprains, knee injuries and other lower-extremity
injuries, to help restore balance, coordination and agility. "We also use it a lot
to help facilitate the transition from crutch use to ambulation," he said.

In "Dance Dance Revolution," the athletes stand on the game's one-square-meter pad
and step in a direction indicated by the game's video screen. Through the "Wii Fit"
system they stand on a platform and adjust their posture, leaning and shifting their
weight through games such as "Ski Slalom," "Table Tilt" and "Balance Bubble."

Brumels was inspired to start using the games a few years ago, when his daughter showed
him her new "Dance Dance Revolution" game. "I thought, 'Oh, my, this has a ton of
applications in the athletic training world and rehabilitation," he said. The college's
athletic training program began using the newly designed Wii system more recently.

He recognizes that the video game balance programs are much more interesting than
the traditional balance exercise programs, which involve standing on a variety of
stable and unstable surfaces, maybe interacting with a ball or other object, in the
training room.

The athletes, he has found, have responded to the greater entertainment value offered
by the video games accordingly. While through the traditional program, he said, they
might typically participate for a week and then simply stop showing up, athletes using
the games regularly stay for the entire multi-week regimen.

"We've had incredible compliance with the athletes on it," Brumels said. "As long
as it's fun, and they're doing it and it's beneficial to them, that's what we want."

The four-week Hope study involved 25 athletes who were asked to rate their experience
with the three systems between one and five according to difficulty, engagement and
enjoyability. While the traditional methods earned a relatively low 2.17 for enjoyability
and a 3.33 for engagement, "Dance Dance Revolution" earned 4.14 in both categories
and "Wii Fit" earned 4.40 in each. The traditional methods rated 3.17 out of five
for difficulty, while "Dance Dance Revolution" and "Wii Fit" weighed in as easier
at 2.71 and 1.60.

Especially significant to Brumels was the finding that the athletes who had used "Dance
Dance Revolution" and "Wii Fit" showed greater improvement in balance as measured
by force plate testing following their month-long rehabilitation experience. It was
an added bonus that the exercises were perceived as easier and more enjoyable by the
participants.

Even as the participants in the study worked on their balance through the various
rehabilitation methods, other students learned through the research process itself.
Brumels conducted the study and co-authored the paper during the recent fall semester
with four Hope senior athletic training or exercise science majors: Troy Blasius,
Tyler Cortright, Daniel Oumedian and Brent Solberg. "They were intimately involved
in the literature review, the study design, the implementation of it, and the data
collection and analysis," he said.

While other studies had considered the clinical potential in games like "Dance Dance
Revolution" and the "Wii Fit" system, Brumels said, their emphasis had been on benefits
such as the cardiovascular workout they can provide. Based on his team's review of
the literature, he said, the Hope study is the first to consider such games' potential
in balance rehabilitation.

In addition to being featured in "Clinical Kinesiology" in the latter part of 2008,
the Hope study is slated for additional presentation later this year. Brumels is
scheduled to give talks about it during meetings of the Great Lakes Athletic Trainers'
Association and the National Athletic Trainers' Association Annual Educational Symposiums
in March and June respectively.

The Hope College Knickerbocker Film Series will present the movie "A Man Named Pearl" on Friday and Saturday, Jan. 23-24; Monday-Wednesday, Jan. 26-28; and Friday, Jan. 30, at 7:30 p.m. at the Knickerbocker Theatre in downtown Holland.

Science, mystery and excitement will combine when Hope College welcomes the Mad Science production of "CSI Live" on Saturday, Jan. 24, at 2 p.m. at the Knickerbocker Theatre in downtown Holland. The production is aimed for ages eight and older.